Waltham women win episode of "Shazam" game show

For two Waltham friends, being able to guess a song from just a few words is more than a cool party trick — it was a skill that won them $103,000 on Fox’s new game show, "Beat Shazam."

Best friends since middle school, Amy Chiasson and Stacey Connors Noel were selected to appear on the show after Chiasson answered an open call and Noel joined her for a follow up Skype interview with producers.

The show, which debuted on May 25, features three teams competing to name a song faster than Shazam, an app that can identify music, TV shows, commercials and movies in mere seconds.

The two lowest-scoring teams are eliminated throughout the game, and Chiasson and Noel made it to the last round, walking away with $103,000.

It’s a relatively simple premise, but it’s harder than it looks, according to Chiasson.

"A lot of people on social media and just in general say, ‘Oh, I would do so great on that show,’ but it’s so much harder than it seems, because even if you know the title of a song, it’s very hard to do it in the time you have and under the confines," she said in a phone interview.

For example, Chiasson got tripped up with Hootie & the Blowfish’s "Only Wanna Be with You," instead answering, "I Only Wanna Be with You."

‘Ladies and gentlemen, Mariah Carey’

Their episode, which aired July 13, also featured a special guest star: Mariah Carey.

Host Jamie Foxx had teased the audience earlier in the game by pretending that Justin Timberlake was in the building. However, when he announced Carey during the show’s "Divas" round, the singer emerged onstage and began hugging contestants.

For Noel and Chiasson, it was a "wild and surreal" experience, Noel said.

"If I told my 18-year-old self that we were going to hug Mariah Carey and spend four hours talking and hanging out with Jamie Foxx, I would never have believed it," she said in an interview.

As host, Foxx also kept the energy level high throughout the show, chatting and joking with contestants, Chiasson said.

"It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," she said. "[Foxx] is just so much fun. He’s so funny and made it so fun for us. When we were nervous, he was very calming and made us feel right at home on the stage."

The comeback kids

As they entered the fourth round, Chiasson and Noel trailed a team from New York by $5,000.

The category was "Wedding Songs," and the pair had $23,000 on the table as DJ October Gonzalez played the last track of the round. When K-Ci and JoJo’s "All My Life" began to play, Chiasson knew it instantly.

"That is my wedding song!" she cheered as host Jamie Foxx waltzed her across the stage to the music.

They swept the category, knocking out the team from New York in the next round. But for Chiasson and Noel, it was less about the money and more about the experience.

"We may not have won the million dollars, but it was definitely a million dollar experience," Chiasson wrote in an email to the News Tribune. "We still can't believe out of the hundreds of thousands of people who auditioned for the show, Fox Network picked two crazy friends from Waltham to be on its first season."

It certainly was a million dollar experience, Noel agreed.

"If it never happened to us again, we’d be more than ok with it, because we were able to experience something that not a lot of people get to do," she said.